Education Bill

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT EDUCATION BILL - PAGE 4

For the tobacco industry, these are not quite the worst of times. In the middle of the last century, people in some parts of the country could be fined or even hauled off to jail for lighting up in public, for example. But in his 18 years of defending the industry, Walker Merryman has never seen anything like the current blitzkrieg against cigarettes and the people who smoke them. "What's happened in the last month is an extraordinary, probably unprecedented, confluence of events," said Merryman, who is vice president of the Tobacco Institute.

Surviving parenthood`s just a matter of outlasting the kids, says a father of eight grown ones. Dr. Archibald McNeill Jr., general practitioner, mayor of Camilla, Ga. (population 5,400), and Family Doctor of the Year, says that`s good to remember when the going seems rough as you deal with infants, toddlers, teen- agers or even adult kids. McNeill says simple patience is a key strategy that he and his wife, Peggy, a nurse, found useful in raising their brood, born within 10 years and now ranging in age from 24 to 34. "The easiest thing about raising children is loving and praising them," McNeill says, noting that it nurtures the spirit and keeps self-esteem high.

More than 1,000 students at Cooper City High School staged a walkout on Monday to protest two controversial education bills now on Gov. Charlie Crist's desk. And thousands more in Broward showed their unhappiness by wearing black in solidarity with teachers. Yet despite fears of a massive "sickout" by angry teachers, most in Broward and Palm Beach counties showed up for work. Miami-Dade County, on the other hand, "did experience a larger-than anticipated number of absences," said district spokesman John Schuster.

Gov. Rick Scott's signing of the Career and Professional Education Act effectively positions Florida State University and the University of Florida for pre-eminent status, and puts FSU on the fast track to move into the top 25 in the national rankings of public colleges and universities. Under the legislation, FSU and UF will receive a higher level of state funding as a result of both schools' proven ability to meet a set of rigorous standards of excellence. Earlier this year, Florida State introduced a bold proposal to break into the U.S. News & World Report "Top 25" ranking of national public universities.

For weeks, legislators have wrestled with one of the toughest questions in their effort to produce an education reform bill: how to define a failing school. On Thursday, Senate negotiators from both major parties announced their answer, as they unveiled a new version of the education bill and began a long-awaited floor debate on one of President Bush's top priorities. Failure, they said, would mean the lack of academic progress by any bloc of disadvantaged students in a school receiving federal education funds meant to close chronic achievement gaps.

Governor Lawton Chiles Tallahassee, Fla. Dear Governor Chiles, Although I haven't written to you in all the time you've been in politics, I have written about you from time to time. I hope you won't hold that against me. The reason I'm finally writing to you after all these years is that I hear you are doing a lot of soul-searching about whether to veto the education bill recently passed by the Florida Legislature. I understand you have received a lot of mail and phone calls urging you to either sign or veto it. I've received a fair share myself.

A POWER STRUGGLE between Florida`s governor and the House of Representatives over the line-item veto on a public education bill is not a distant, meaningless political squabble. Graham It is, instead, a vital debate with far-reaching implications for every state resident, touching important issues such as how laws are written, where and how much tax money is spent and where the delicate balance of power between governor and Legislature should rest. The ultimate decision may come from the Florida Supreme Court.

Scientists and science teachers across the country worry that federal lawmakers might be making room in public school classrooms for the biblical story of the origin of life. The controversy stems from a short, nonbinding amendment to President Bush's long education bill. It urges educators to distinguish "testable theories of science from philosophical or religious claims that are made in the name of science." Critics say the language is an invitation for creationist views to enter science classrooms.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- President Bush, choosing a much-touted experimental magnet school in St. Paul as a backdrop, sent his package of educational reforms to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. The "America 2000" reform program, which leans heavily on incentives for state and local government action and relatively little on federal funding, was announced at the White House a month ago, and Wednesday`s quick visit seemed designed to revive the glow of that moment. In his message to Congress accompanying the legislative package, Bush said the proposals "are just components, albeit very important components, of a strategy most of which would take place outside the federal government."